Robin Hood Week - a medieval banquet

We had a fun day at our medieval banquet.

First, we were given a tour of the castle by a servant,  Mitzy (Mrs.Dye).
Mitzy explained  the different parts  of the castle i.e the moat, the port cullis, sleeping quarters, castle kitchen etc..

 Mitzy served the visitors with  food and refreshments. She also provided medieval music and Samantha treated us to an impromptu dance - it was lovely!

Some of the children took it upon themselves to be Kings and Queens too - ordering poor Mitzy about - she was exhausted by the end of the day!

Suddenly, we were under attack and had to defend the castle - the children were very good shots with their 'bows and arrows' and the invaders soon ran away - hurray! 

During the feast, we received a letter from Prince John who had kidnapped Robin Hood.

 Mitzy and all the children set out to find him. We searched high and low . Then ,just as we were giving up, we found him in a box in the corridor.

The following day, Mrs,Cook (Year 3 and 4 teacher) very kindly brought in her real bow and arrow to show the children.  One of her hobbies is archery, and the children were very interested and listened very well. 

Hello to all F2 children and families

I hope you are having a good week together.

I have been away for a few days painting and decorating a flat. (that was my job before I became a teacher  -  I still love it though, very theraputic.)

The children settled well into F2 last term and we enjoyed  many topics.

Just thought I'd share a few photos and highlights - hope you enjoy them....

We follow the children's interest in Early Years, and Aeroplanes became a hot topic. Captain Elisha took his turn flying for  Newbold Airways. 

This topic introduced  many new ideas and vocabulary. 

It also encouraged excellent team work and negotiation in the children's self initiated play.

 They were able to explore mathematical concepts such as distance and speed.  

All the children became engaged  - making and serving play food and drinks

to the passengers and creating stories around the aircraft e.g needing to fix it as it had broken down.

                                          Newbold Airways cabin crew delivering  a high standard of service - Well                                            done.

We talked about parts of an aircraft and some of the children labelled their own aeroplane.

This topic was very motivating and great fun.

During Harvest Festival week we read  Farmer Duck. This motivated a lot of physical digging in the outside area and I would hear the children calling to each other 'How goes the work?' which is a repeated refrain throughout the story by the lazy farmer who leaves all the work to the poor overworked duck. Don't worry, the animals chase him off the  farm and he is never seen again.

 Another brilliant story where we could explore what is fair and not fair. We looked a bit more closely at where milk and corn came from too. (Amazing fact- Kelloggs cornflakes was invented by a Seventh Day Adventist - John Kellogg in the 19th Century.)

We also reads The Gruffalo by Julia Donaldson. This motivated the children to design and make some lovely models of the Gruffalo out of playdough and various materials-

 we also made a Gruffalo Pie!
!

The children like cooking and it is a brilliant vehicle for measuring and strengthening fingers plus many more learning opportunities.
(Elisha, I haven't forgotten that you want to cook Supernoodles!)


Look forward to seeing you all next week and ready to start a very busy and exciting christmas term.

Please let me know if you have any problems receiving Tapestry.

Until then
God bless
 from Mrs.Dye

Hi to all of F2 and their families...

Thought you might enjoy these photos from our trip to BirdWorld yesterday.

We travelled up by coach to Farnham. 

As usual, the children were so well behaved -  not distracting the driver and letting us know when they did not feel so good  - Well Done!

There were so many interesting birds to look at from all over the world 

but...

 the first animals we saw were in the Underwater World

...2 crocodiles and  lots of  fishes.

After that we saw many beautiful birds from all over the world-  including Flamingoes, Penguins, Pelicans, Hornbills, Owls and Parrots  (the Parrots  were so noisy! they made us jump!)

Four huge Herons kept flying over our heads during Penguin Feeding time - it was quite exciting.

A Barn Owl

A Blue and Yellow Parrot called Noddy  from the Brazilian Rainforest. Noddy could quack like a duck and moo like a cow - he was very funny.

Pelicans

After lunch the children had time to play in the parks where they could get very close to the birds....

Goodbye BirdWorld - time to get back back on the coach.

We had a lovely day and ...

Thank you 

to all the parents who came and helped - it was much appreciated

x

Welcome back to the last term of Reception.
Hope you have all had a good week.

I thought you might like to see some photos -  highlights from  last term...

We watched the little caterpillars change into Pupas

After about 2 weeks, the pupas cracked open and  and out crawled 4 beautiful Painted Lady butterflies. 

It was the first time I had actually seen this happen, how fantastic! - previous years, they emerged when we were not at school to witness it. 

We let them go in Sylvia's Garden next to Newbold Church Centre. 

The Butterflies left a Thank you letter for every child. We found them hidden in the bushes.

After the butterflies had flown away, all the children offered a prayer-  thanking God for the butterflies and asking  him to look after them.

It was a really lovely project. What an amazing and mysterious world we live in.

So this last term, I will be preparing the children for transition to Year 1 with particular  focus on writing.

As always, please come and see me if you have anything you would like to talk about.

God Bless

Hi Everyone

Here are our new classroom 'pets' that have already been named by one of the girls!

Five beautiful, black , munching caterpillars -  Cyan,  Stacey,  Misis Diy,  Mareea and Sofee.

They are growing at a rapid rate too.

One of them looks like they are starting the next stage of metamorphis and is hanging upside down in the cup,
Watch this space - so exciting!
We are going to look at the life cycle today in class.

Come and have a look , they are quite amazing,

God bless from
Mrs.Dye

Welcome back to the Summer Term 2015

Hope you have all had a great Easter Holiday - we have had plenty of sunshine to enjoy. Apparently, there is more around the corner:)

The Summer Term is always an exciting term - warmer weather, various social and school events and lots of learning outside - fabulous!


We have some 'pets' arriving very soon in F2.
 Five of them- each one about 3mm long and hairy.
Can you guess what they are? Watch this space.......

Here are a few photos from last term - we had a great time learning to swim -I  hope the  children showed you their certificates and shared all the skills they learned at Bracknell Swimming Pool.

As always, the children demonstrated such good self management - getting undressed/dressed independently and  good behaviour to and from the swimming pool.
The coach driver was always given a hello and thankyou and did not mind all the singing that went on there and back! -  Well Done F2.
Thankyou Mrs.Bay for taking the photos (with an underwater camera!).

I will give you the F2 Summer Newsletter to read at your leisure on Tuesday.
Look forward to seeing you all back at school,

Take care and God bless
from Mrs,Dye and Mrs.Bay

An IT man came to talk and a tiger came to tea!

Just a quick update on what we have been doing  
since the start of the Spring term 2015 ......

Steve Eccles, our brilliant  IT man, came into F2 last week to talk about computers 
and the differences between the devices people use today. 

After snack some of children decided to make  their own laptops and tablets out of card and paper . One of the children even invented their own online game - super! I have put them up on the wall , so take a look next time...


We have  been reading the story of  The Tiger who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr.
A small, simple story with huge messages - a brillant vehicle for teaching some important social skills and other important health issues to the children. 

We invited the tiger to a healthy lunch today in order to help him with his poor eating habits.

 The children made sandwiches, Tiger dips and Fruit Salad. 

The children were patient, kind teachers and the tiger had really changed into a polite Newbold tiger by the end of lunchtime due to their guidance - Well Done F2.

Many thanks to Cindy West,  a talented  baker from Newbold Church, who also came into school this week to make Tiger Biscuits with the children. They were delicious! 

Our last photo before the tiger went back home....